Southern Strategy

Here is the dishonest ad Romney has been running accusing President Obama of "gutting" Bill Clinton's 1996 welfare reform bill. Not too difficult to figure out just what bloc of voters the Romney campaign is trying to reach with this appeal

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The ad features a white worker wiping the sweat off his brow in one frame, and the next shows President Obama with the words "Obama guts work requirement" superimposed over him. More images of workers follow, as the narrator ominously intones lines like "you don't have to work, or even train for a job" and "they just send you a check".

Unfortunately, there is a receptive audience out there for this sort of thing. Decades of conservative rhetoric have seen to that. Whites who have seen their own economic security undermined by forces beyond their control, or even comprehension, will find the racist messaging in this ad dangerously seductive. And that is exactly what Romney is banking on.